Does Competition matter? – Early empirical Evidence on the quality of ambulatory Care

Does Competition matter? – Early empirical Evidence on the quality of ambulatory Care

Maximilian Lückemann (IHE Hannover)

Due to a rapidly aging population in Germany, ambulatory care facilities have experienced increasing demand for outpatient care. Therefore, we observed numerous of newly established facilities in the market. At the same time, we are aware of the lack of qualified nursing staff who can provide good quality. In this research, we examine the effect of increasing outpatient care competition on care quality, based on the quality disclosure of the MRB in Germany. Considering the latest critique on the transparency reports, we created new quality indices and found small but significant quality detoriating effects observing data from 2011 to 2019.